The Black Sox Scandal

The Black Sox Scandal

Long regarded as America's past time, the sport of baseball, right before the Great Depression, saw one of its darkest days with the fixing of the 1919 World Series. The details of the "Big Fix" have always been questionable over the years, but the result stands. Eight players on the favored Chicago White Sox, including potential Hall of Famer Shoeless Joe Jackson, were permanently banned from professional baseball.

The plan to throw the game for money manifested itself when Whitesox player Arnold "Chick" Gandil met with a gambler by the name of Joseph "Sport" Sullivan. In said meeting, they discussed the possibility of the favored White Sox to throw the series to the Cincinnati Reds. Many of the White Sox players felt that they were not being fairly paid by their owner, and this contributed to a shared disgruntled mood. Gandil agreed to organize other players into the scheme. Players included the pitchers Claude "Lefty" Williams and Eddie Cicote. The most famous co-conspirator, though his involvement has always been argued, was Shoeless Joe Jackson.

On the gambler front, Sullivan was in works with the likes of other famous criminals such as "Sleepy" Bill Burns, Bill Maharg, and Abe Attel. They began raising the money that would be used to pay each of the players. Infamous mobster Arnold Rothstein, who later rose to prominence during the early stages of Prohibition, was suspected to be involved in financing the bribes, but he was never tied to the case. There were so many people beginning to bet for underdog Reds that there was talk of the Series being fixed even before the games. When the White Sox lost, the conversation that certain White Sox players had corrupted the competitive nature of baseball persisted. However, no real progress was made in an investigation until a grand jury was called. Some of the players admitted taking part in the scandal, and this led to the eight players White Sox players to be indicted for conspiracy. For their part in the crime, they became known as the "Black Sox" players. The players were not found guilty during the 1921 trial, but the fact that their earlier confessions were "missing" should not be ignored.

Despite being found innocent, the players were banned from the sport for life by the newly appointed ( and first ever) baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. No career or legacy of a ballplayer has ever been ruined to that extent, even during the Steroid era, since then. Gambling and baseball had been connected in instances before, but the fixing of the championship series compromised the very competitive nature of the sport. It became known as the greatest sports scandal in not only baseball but arguably in all of sports. The ban is still in effect, despite efforts from some of the player's families, and has prevented Shoeless Joe Jackson's admittance into the Hall of Fame.
 What was worse was that the integrity of baseball was questioned for some time after, and the game would have to outlast the Great Depression to reach its old glory and respect.


Sources:

http://www.history.com/news/the-black-sox-baseball-scandal-95-years-ago

http://www.americanheritage.com/content/say-it-ain%E2%80%99t-so-joe

https://espn.go.com/classic/s/black_sox_moments.html